


Submersed

by WrittenLetters



Series: Submersion [1]
Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Character Study, Drabble Collection, Gen, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-10
Updated: 2014-04-10
Packaged: 2018-01-18 21:06:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1442884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WrittenLetters/pseuds/WrittenLetters
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Asami Sato is more than just a socialite in Republic City and pro-bending brothers Mako and Bolin seem to be better fighters than they let on. With political powers constantly shifting due to the social change movement that the Equalists are preaching the only thing that is certain is that Korra is as lost as can be once she arrives in Republic City, seeing the world for the first time after being locked away from society for so long. Drabbles and excerpts from the defunct fic Submersion. Sporadic updating.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Submersed

**001\. Lost**

 

It is among the fall and winter months of his twelfth year that Mako has his hands in between the pages of a ledger. Perhaps, given a different set of circumstances, he would be doing _this_ – balancing figures, calculating loss and profit – for his parents and not the Triple Ts.

“Stop it; you know better,” he huffs out, extinguishing that flame of an idea with his scorn.

Mako’s blackened fingers hover over numbers that translate into loaves of bread for Bolin – it keeps him going.

 

 

**002\. Overwrought**

 

“This is bullshit.”

The crumpled note beneath his boot is smashed further. He could burn it, turn it to ash, and let it fly away into nothing, but the words would still hang in the air.

“ _You’ll always be an Enlighten Spark – forced or not. The admittance board won’t allow it, even with your familial history. If anything I can sponsor Bolin in two years time, even if his major lies somewhere else out of my command, but until then… You should take up Toza’s offer to work for Commissioner Beifong. For what it’s worth Mako, I’m sorry.”_

Mako does not cry – he clenches his fists, locks his jaw, and proceeds to look and act like a miserable bastard for the rest of the day.

Society is punishing him for surviving, yet was absent when he needed _them_ the most.

He picks up the note, unfolds it, and begrudgingly hangs it in his training locker back at the arena.

 

 

**003\. Blattering**

 

Ultimately, it’s the inane chattering that sets Mako off.

Hasook, red faced and stormy eyes, drags Mako out by his collar shoving the firebender into the nearest alleyway.

“You are to _never_ come into my home again Mako. You got that? No where near my kids while we’re at it too!”

Taking a spit – not at the waterbender, Mako isn’t completely stupid with Hasook – he nods and starts to head back to the arena. “See you at the match tonight,” he calls over his shoulder.

Hasook doesn’t hear the grumbling though.

“Sharp, stupid kids.”

Mako rubs his ribs, feeling the characters etched into his flesh – _Triple Threat Triad, Spark_.

 

 

**004\. Drenched**

 

When Korra offers to joins them on their next assignment from Beifong, Mako shuts her down.

In turn, she nearly drowns him by “accidentally” sending him into the wash before a practice run in the arena.

Mako doesn’t know what disturbs him more – that Korra _is_ the Avatar, or that Mako would do the same if he were in her place instead.

 

 

**005\. Controversial**

 

“I don’t like this anymore than you do.”

Beifong’s words ooze with her clear disdain for the idea. Here she is, on top of the chain of command, out of her mother’s shadow and legacy – for the most part – and yet she’s being forced to take on a new task force that clashes with her political, personal, and social platforms.

At least she’s acknowledging his feelings, for once, over the issue at hand.

“Care to remove these from my wrists then?” Mako twists his metal clamped hands to make a visual point.

She smirks, sits back across from him, legs crossed. “No.”

Mako frowns and proceeds to set his contract on fire for an instant with the point of his index finger.

His name is burned through the official document on the dotted line.

Beifong’s smirk falls, her anger evident now, but it was worth it.

 

**006\. Alarm**

 

He closed his eyes and held onto Bolin as they heard their parents scream.

He sooths Bolin whenever his little brother cries over the memory and screams out his frustration.

He, Mako, buries his screams into his scarf or pillow when no one is around. It’s the best way to unleash it, for he bottles it up so he won’t be heard.

The less for Bolin to worry about, the better, Mako decides.

 

 

**007\. Lounge**

 

Just because Mako can wield fire and identifies himself as a firebender – though mixed with the blood of the Earth Kingdom – doesn’t mean that is the main reason he rises with the sun.

He wakes up every morning just before dawn so that he can sit back and watch Bolin’s sleeping form.

“This is why I do what I do,” he tells himself in a whisper.

Once the sun’s rays fill half the room with its light, Mako stands, gets to work, and faces the day, and what it brings, head on.

 

 

**008\. Prelude**

 

Mako’s first word is “Avatar” – not Avatar Aang, or Roku, or Kyoshi, just “Avatar”.

The next is “White Lotus”.

His parents stop reading to him at bedtime about the “fantastical stories” bounded in blue, green, and red. They switch to picture books and old folk tales from the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom.

 

 

**009\. Await**

 

At the end of a difficult day, Mako will climb to the top level of the spire above the apartment and sit in the window’s frame, overlooking Republic City’s bay.

He waits for the pull of the sun to come back and give him a clean slate, or at least one where he can make new ground.

 

 

**010\. Relapse**

 

“Oh well I’ll be. Mako, nice enough for you to come back and join us, huh?” Shin’s eyes alight with the glow of a submerged fire.

“Yeah.”

Mako looks down and hopes Shin doesn’t notice the extent of his beating – the bruises and markings of hands wrapped around his throat – covered by an oversized red scarf.

“What do you want me to do?”

 

 

**011\. Sliver**

 

The scarf maybe all that he has left of his father, but in two years time Mako and Bolin find books written in their mother’s hand.

All those wishes for just another keepsake do not come without consequence. Books, not books for they journals despite their given titles, written by foreign hands are found as well.

Mako begins reading _Book 1: Water_ to Bolin during the cold winter nights.

 

 

**012\. Reverse**

 

The energy races across his arms, through his belly, and back out his hands. The power that he wielded only behind red threaded marks of what was once there instead of scorched fingertips. His legs shake, but Mako has trained himself to not fall again, and he keeps his ground.

Zolt smiles and claps his hands – a first directed at Mako.

The lightning is gone, but Mako hears thunder rolling in his ears.

He needs to get Bolin leave the Triple Ts _now_ before the next bolt of lightning strikes.

 

 

**013\. Aftermath**

 

When Mako receives his first payment of food from Shin, the crust of the bread dissolves into ash according to his mouth.

For the first week, Mako skips most of his meals and Bolin unknowingly enjoys Mako’s portion as “seconds”.

Mako knows _where_ that food came from and what he did to earn it. He just wonders how long it’ll take for him to not be bothered by such knowledge.

Years later, even as he sits down at dining table in the apartment that Toza rents out to them, Mako always declines the loaves of bread that Bolin insists on buying for their meals.

 

 

**014\. Burned**

 

Balled fists, toes curled, jaw biting into – and nearly through – a ball of wrapped, interwoven fabric. If there wasn’t alcohol flowing through his system, Mako would be screaming a litany of profanities while stopping to shove his face further into the burlap.

There are hands holding him down for his own protection so that Chau doesn’t mess anything up, causing the process to be halted momentarily.

He’s used to the scent of burning flesh – which isn’t startling, but damn well should be. Between his parents’s deaths and his prior marks, this is a warped normal for Mako.

Though this is yet another year where he tells himself he has to get out before Bolin gets his initiation and rank marks and before Mako receives his last and final one that cascades down his spine.

The moment he’s labeled as an _Inferno_ by the Triple Ts, he’ll probably burn everything in sight and the world will see his charred hull that resides under his façade for once.

 

 

**015\. Grudge**

 

“He means well – you know that.”

Mako won’t turn around to face Bolin because his little brother is right.

Toza is so damn-fucking-shit stubborn and just won’t budge and it pisses Mako off because _he_ does the same damn thing and just – urgh!

He holds his sigh in, crosses his arms, gaze focusing on the training equipment before him.

“Mako,” Bolin warns.

“What!”

He doesn’t turn around, feeling Bolin’s stare aimed at his clenched shoulders. As far as he is concerned, Toza and him have the same damn problem and just wallow in it day in and day out.

Mako’s just happy that Bolin doesn’t repeat the same notion aloud.

 

 

**016\. Tease**

 

“Oh come on Mako! There’ll be girls!”

Mako pauses and begins to count to ten, but Bolin purposefully interrupts the possibility of a calm, sound of mind version of his older brother.

“Hey, I’m not saying you have to find someone. Just come with me, be my wingman, and have a fun night not buried in your cases. It’s _simple_.” Bolin makes some grand, fluid gesture with his hands to sell the point further.

Rolling his eyes and trying not to let out a laugh because it’s never “just simple”, Mako avoids Bolin’s pout. “My answer is still no.”

“Listen, we can always go look at guys. I don’t judge, in fact – “

“BOLIN!”

That did it.

_I can’t Bolin. I can’t – I have to be here for you._

What surprises Bolin is that Pabu doesn’t squeal over the slamming of Mako’s bedroom door.

Looking to his shoulder, Bolin tries to express his remaining joy, but it comes out flat, “I’ll guess you’ll have to do, huh buddy?”

 

 

**017\. Numbers**

 

It took Mako a season to figure it out.

The Triple Ts had horrid books in the beginning, but that was due to the previous keeper – some mid-level member’s brother’s cousin on his wife’s side of the family – who clearly didn’t know what he was doing. Incorrect calculations, the desire to use the wrong color ink for improper figures, multiple pages missing… The only good that came from the debacle was that Mako learned how to bind his own books from having to tear everything apart and that he was able to convince Shin to keep him as a bookkeeper until Mako could figure out a better life for Bolin and him.

So when the Equalists let him sort through their financials, nothing seemed amiss. It was a sweet deal to boot – no interference with the Triple Ts (not a gang, a social cause that wasn’t claiming districts like pets), extra pay that wasn’t taxed away, no “field work”, and could be done in the little off time he had. Yet the more meetings and rallies he attended the more discrepancies Mako found in the labeling of funds.

When he gave his notice that he was moving on – a terrible lie of moving out of Republic City – a superior discovered the marks scribed around Mako’s ribs

There isn’t a day that goes by where Mako wonders what the Equalists _really_ want and where he is on their “Benders of Interest” list.

 

 

**018\. Puzzle**

The first three cases he takes for Beifong – all the under the table and off the books with so-so pay – are nothing out of the ordinary. It’s all petty gang based stuff due to his insider knowledge.

During the fourth case, a fresh gang ends up spilling a key piece of information to the Triple Ts – intel that could have only come from Biefong’s inner circle.

There’s a leak within Republic City’s forces.

By the eighth assignment an officer is dead. The eleventh, a political official is named as the source of the trouble. It’s upon the completion of Mako’s twenty-seventh case that the elections are over and Councilman Tarrlok takes the incarcerated official’s place.

Still, it doesn’t add up according to Mako. Something is off.

On more occasions than he would care to count, Mako ends up writing “Connection: Equalists?” in his personal case notes.

He ultimately hopes he isn’t right for once.

 

 

**019\. Breathe**

 

“And the Fire Ferrets win the round!”

Through the thunderous applause, cheers, and boos – the cascade of noise – Mako is able to hear his heartbeat, the huff and puff of the air and fire in his lungs, but he doesn’t really, truly smile until he sees Bolin throw him a thumbs up in his direction.

 _Now this is life_.

 

 

**020\. Solid**

 

At first it was difficult to describe fire to Bolin while they were both learning their bending elements.

Fire was transparent, yet could consume just about anything. You could run your hand through it – with great skill and control – and there was still the chance of having it die and transform into smoke. To have a hold on it was difficult.

Then their lives were flipped upside down and everything changed.

Mako can describe how each element, beside air, feels with great accuracy due to the marks he caries.

Through bruised ribs, frozen appendages, and seared flesh he knows the pain; and Bolin less so, but enough for Mako to cringe at the thought of his little brother’s marks.

The joy of bending his element in the palm of his hand that mesmerized him at a young age is gone. All that’s left is a need to survive, to fight when necessary.

It’s reliable and something that Mako finds himself falling back on constantly.

**Author's Note:**

> During the beginning of Book 1 of LOK I started writing a fic called Submersion which successfully guessed a few canon things (i.e.: Mako was a Triad member who crunched numbers) as well as the direction of Book 2, but then it was completely killed by Book 1's season's finale. Due to life I didn't set aside time to continue playing with the idea to have more chapters posted (in fact I just kept editing the ones I had "finished", never liking the outcome). On a whim I decided to bring the idea back, but in a different format. 
> 
> The drabbles are scattered about time wise, mostly taking place before and during Book 1. Book 2 may happen at some point, but probably once the issue of Amon is addressed.
> 
> There may be plot holes and changes/edits - I'm trying to have fun with this take on LOK instead of freaking out about how perfect it'll be. If you see something that doesn't make sense, speak up and comment. I'll clarify the issue/or fix it altogether with the writer's equivalent of duct tape or WD-40 (more footnotes or more updates).
> 
> If you think shipping will occur later down the line - nope. It was beaten to death in the show and there will be more pressing things to focus on than reading about teenagers/adults who don't know which person they should hook up with.
> 
> EDIT: What a surprise, grammar isn't plentiful at 4 AM.


End file.
